ARVIND: October 2017

India stands at 79^th position out of total 176 countries in the list of most corrupt countries produced by Transparency International. India’s poor rank has many reasons but is attributed mostly to no accountability of Govt. and its officials and no security of anti-corruption actions.
The bookish definition of corruption says that “Corruption is the misuse of entrusted power for private gain”. A much more scientific definition given by Dr. Petrus Van Duyne says that “Corruption is an improbity or decay in the decision-making process in which a decision-maker consents to deviate or demands deviation from the criterion which should rule his or her decision-making, in exchange for a reward or for the promise or expectation of a reward, while these motives influencing his or her decision-making cannot be part of the justification of the decision”.
If we read these line carefully then we will realize that corruption is everywhere around us. We are so neck deepens with corruption that it has become part of our daily life.
Let’s take few of real life examples of corruptions in our daily life; we are travelling in train and we don’t have ticket, we bribe ticket collector and get away. We pay bribe to get a confirmed ticket in train. Police man allowing vendors in train or smoking in train in return of money.
In a more dangerous form of corruption, municipality allows illegal constructions and shops. Companies pays bribe to get tenders and orders. Now, when somebody is paying a bribe to get some order, they add this money in to their cost and to compensate it they will use poor quality material in construction which in turn results in collapse of it and loss of human life. In government office, the corruption is so huge that one can’t make or take any caste certificate or birth/death/marriage certificate without giving bribe to any official. The corruption is so widespread that no area of society is untouched from it. A cop takes bribe to produce a driving license without giving a test. A man who didn’t want to fight the competition will give money to get a job and once he gets the job he will try to earn that money back. This is how corruption expands itself.
Now, let’s discuss how we can remove corruption.
One important step can be to have free education or government sponsored education to all till graduation. It will provide every individual with same set of skill set and knowledge levels irrespective of their economic background. In the current education sector there is wide difference in a government school kid and a private school kid. When people get same opportunities, they tend to be less corrupt and will be more responsible. For higher education government can allow private institutes to come so that those who are interested can go there.
Second step should be to control money expenditure on elections. Election commission has taken many steps to curb corruption in elections, which is a big root cause of corruption in India. A representative spent so much money in elections that after election he started taking bribe for everything he do be it transfers, jobs or any other work. Election Commission has put a limit to election expenditure and also made it mandatory for candidates to make their income and source of income public to qualify for an election yet here and there we hear the news of violations of these norms.
Another step to curb corruption in bureaucracy is to promote e-services. In E-services, people can apply for various govt. services online. E-services are makes use of internet and computer in place of files and papers, it will improve quality of database and it will make system more transparent and will also speed up the whole process. For many services, government has started e-governance and it is giving very good result but it is yet to expand itself in other sectors.
Government can also define a time frame for completion of a job and penalize those who don’t adhere to it. This will put pressure on government officials to finish a job in given time, which will reduce corruption. This service has been used in few states successfully but it needs to cover many services under it. Government has already started e-tendering process which has cut the corruption from many tenders but government need to bring more services under this.
Installation of CCTV (Close Circuit Television Camera) in Govt. offices will generate fear of law and will force them to use corruption free practices.
Govt. can also strengthen RTI (Right to information Act) which will make Govt. more accountable and transparent. Under RTI, people can directly ask questions to Govt. and Govt. has to reply them. Govt. can also strengthen “Whistle Blower Bill” which will ensure safety of those who will bring the corruption cases to media or court.
One more step to curb the corruption will be to cut the discretionary powers of legislatures. A discretionary power is a power that a person can use if that person thinks that it is suitable given the situation and circumstances. These powers mostly used in giving favors. Most important step to remove corruption is to make people aware about corruption. Many times people don’t know the proper procedure; this cannot be called corruption. It is more of un-awareness of law. We also need to make strict laws to deal with corruption cases whether it is small or big.
Corruption is not a single man’s problem. Its problem of every one and no one can solve this problem alone. We can’t just leave it to government. It is responsibility of each and every individual. Let’s take a pledge to that we will not give or take bribe. Let’s pledge that we will not promote corrupt practices. Let’s pledge that we will not give or dowry. Let’s pledge to make India corruption free.